


Bond

by jacedesbff



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Inspired by Camlann, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-02-06 05:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1846684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacedesbff/pseuds/jacedesbff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint Barton did not want to spar with Natasha Romanoff. He also couldn't tell anyone why for reasons including, but not limited to, the fact that no one would believe what would happen if he did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reluctance

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Lace Handprints](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622246) by [Camlann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camlann/pseuds/Camlann). 



> NOTE: I have often been impressed by others’ works, and this is not the first time that another’s universe has inspired me to imagine my favorite characters in it. This is, however, the first time that I had no choice but to go ask the author could I pretty please play in their sandbox? Camlann has created a beautiful world called [Latticework Souls](http://archiveofourown.org/series/108215), with this description: 
> 
> “For every soul, there is a mate. And for every mate, there is a pattern. Whether it's designed around a beat of a heart or a favorite color, no one really knows for sure. All that's known is that the first kiss, the kiss that is possibly the last of first kisses, leaves a work of art. A pattern. A design of interlocking lines and swirls.
> 
> From lovers on the lips and back of hands, to siblings meant to forever be close on cheeks and foreheads, a soul mate bond mark is easy to spot.”
> 
> Her story is a beautiful post-CA2 Darcy/Bucky story, and I was instantly taken with the universe and pictured Clint and Natasha in it. Then Camlann SO VERY GRACIOUSLY agreed to let me write in it. Thank you so much!! All mistakes are mine, as are errors in interpretation of the universe. One note – characters in her world may manifest lattices from something other than a kiss, but it is extremely rare. Thank you again, lovely! (And now I'm all nervous to do it justice!)

Clint Barton did not want to spar with Natasha Romanoff. Coulson had been trying for weeks to get him to do so, both before and after Natasha ripped through SHIELD’s rosters on the training mats. Even the best agents only made it five or ten minutes longer than average before being knocked out or critically wounded. The only person to hold their own longer than that was May and that had simply resulted in both women walking away beaten and bloody. So yeah, Coulson wanted Clint out there, and he wanted him now. 

Before joining SHIELD, Clint was Special Forces, and he continued to pass the training regimen each year, not an easy task. Additionally, the sniper was the agent who brought Natasha in, he was preparing to be her partner, and he was the only person to form any sort of personal bond with her since she had come to their side. No one – including Coulson – understood why Barton didn’t want to spar with someone who would undoubtedly be a match for him. And the archer wasn’t explaining his reluctance. 

He couldn’t. Who would believe him? 

Clint knew, though. He knew exactly what would happen if he and Natasha Romanoff faced off in the gym, and he didn’t want to go there. He didn’t think they could avoid it forever, in fact he knew they couldn’t. He did. But he was going to put it off as long as possible. Let them get a few missions under their belts, both for his sake and for hers. They needed more time, they needed to know each other better, to trust each other more. It wasn’t just her – it was both of them. He knew that. 

He also knew that it wouldn’t be long before Coulson made it an order. 

He was right. 

“Barton, she’s almost ready for field work. The only thing left is to see how she works with her potential partner.” 

“We’ve already passed our psych compatibility tests.” 

“That’s not what I mean and you know it. This is a direct command from Director Fury, Agent.” 

Clint didn’t respond, but his longtime handler did note the tightening of his agent’s hands. What the hell was going on?

“I want the gym cleared. We can use the auxiliary training room if you want, but I don’t want an audience.” 

Coulson nodded, years of training hiding his surprise and, frankly, confusion. 

“Just me and Hill. I’ll report back to Fury.” 

“You do that, sir.”

On that note, Clint turned and walked away. 

That night, Coulson sent a text to Clint telling him to be in the auxiliary training gym at 0800. 

*

As Natasha Romanoff taped her hands, she wondered if she was finally going to get a real workout on the mats. Not that SHIELD was full of bumbling fools – clearly the people she had faced were trained, but by and large they weren’t up to her level, and none of them would serve as regular training partners. May and a few others may have been people who in a previous life would make entertaining opponents, but they weren’t people that Natasha could work with to build her skills. The fit wasn’t there. 

Natasha couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t had her match up against Barton. She asked him about it once, and he dodged the question. Skillfully, but it was still a dodge. The two of them were going to be partnered in the field. They both knew it, SHIELD knew it, they were being prepared for it – it was in no way a secret. Why, then, he hadn’t yet sparred with her was a question she genuinely did not know the answer to, not a usual thing in her world. 

The door opened and Natasha looked up. Coulson hadn’t told her who today’s training partner would be when he instructed her to report to a different location, but he and Hill were there when she arrived. 

“Good to see you’re on time, Barton,” Coulson said to her imminent partner as the man entered dressed in workout clothes. 

“Morning,” her fellow assassin answered brusquely in Coulson’s direction, dropping his bag and turning his attention to her. 

“How long do you need to warm up?” Barton asked as he began his own warm-up routine. 

“Not long,” Natasha answered as she started her own series of stretches. Why was he being so closed off? He wasn’t a warm and fuzzy kind of guy, something Natasha appreciated, but this coldness wasn’t him, either. Their relationship was always professional, and as their interactions increased, so did their mutual comfort level, lately resulting in something approaching friendship. 

This, though? The coldness he was currently displaying was something she didn’t recognize at all. It was directed more at Coulson and Hill than at her. Regardless, it was odd, and it set her on edge. Was that part of his training strategy? She knew how intelligent and analytical he was. She wouldn’t put it past him to use such tactics to throw her off. Best to be on her guard. 

Barton finished stretching and stepped on to the mat. Natasha noted that he was wearing a worn, loose-fitting muscle shirt and basketball shorts. She had seen him in the gym before and knew this was his usual workout attire. She was wearing her usual outfit of yoga pants and a sports bra. Some agents failed to realize the potential benefits of either their or their partner’s clothing. She knew enough about Barton to know that he wouldn’t make that mistake. 

She stepped onto the mat and faced him. They nodded their heads at each other and the match began. She struck first, moving her arm in and up towards his face. She knew he would block it, and her goal was to gauge his response time. She was pleased to note that it was almost as fast as her own. What she didn’t expect was the feeling of bee stings that erupted on the back of her wrist at the contact. 

Subconsciously she took the moment necessary to assess the feeling as non-life threatening, taking no note of it beyond that. What she did take stock of was the tightening of his facial expression in reaction to the contact. Natasha attempted to exploit this by sweeping her ankle towards his, aiming to knock him down. While he did fall, he reached out and took her with him, his hand gripping her calf. 

Everywhere they touched she felt that bee-sting sensation. Having already categorized it, she ignored it, but it continued to spread. 

As Natasha fell, she maneuvered herself to put Clint in her patented thigh hold. It wasn’t just the stinging on her inner thighs that allowed Clint to break her grip – something only a handful of people in the world could do – but she would wonder later if that completely unexpected sensation hadn’t contributed to it. 

She stood, her eyes still on him, as she shook the various parts of her body that were still tingling. Simultaneously, Clint sprang up from the mat and Natasha noticed marks on his neck that hadn’t been there a few moments ago. What she saw broke her concentration and she stood up straight, dropping abruptly out of her fighting stance. 

In a daisy chain across Clint Barton’s previously unmarked collarbone there was now a pattern of red inverted triangles and thin purple arrows strung together like a necklace. 

She looked down at the back of her right wrist, the first part of her body that had made contact with her partner, hoping in that instant that she wouldn’t see it, that what she feared wouldn’t be there. 

No such luck. 

There on the back of her wrist was a purple bullseye with a bullet hole dead center. 

Yes, Natasha Romanoff had found her soul mate. 

 

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

The Red Room did not allow identifying marks on their operatives. Any girl who ended up with lattices had them removed immediately, followed by intense evaluation to ensure that finding their “soul mate” had not compromised her. The process was unpleasant and only two of the four girls Natasha had seen this happen to had survived. In Natasha’s experience, lattices were to be avoided. Beyond that, she’d just never cared – it was hardly something that would apply her. 

Yet here she was looking at just such markings on several parts of her body. 

That was unusual. Most people only got lattices in one place, usually the point of contact, and usually on the lips. So what was she doing with them on her wrist, her ankle, her calf and her _inner thighs_? 

Natasha grabbed up her clothing, got dressed and – for her – stormed out of the room. Anyone else might have been described as striding with purpose. For Natasha, it was storming. 

oOo

Clint was expecting the knock at the door, and he stepped aside as he opened it to his – well, whatever she was now. 

“You knew.”

Clint didn’t respond. 

“You knew that this would happen. That’s why you didn’t want to spar with me.” Natasha crossed the length of his admittedly small quarters in two strides and then turned to face him, practically vibrating with anger. Clint supposed he should be flattered that she would show such strong emotions in front of him. 

“Coulson and Hill were already there when I arrived. They were waiting for us, and you were the one that wasn’t happy. You knew.” The look on her face would make 99% of the people in the world wet themselves. “Explain.” 

Clint was part of the other 1%. 

The long-distance assassin leaned back against the door and ran his fingers through his hair. He nodded with his head for her to take a seat on the bed. She gave him the look that suggestion deserved and remained standing. 

Clint closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the door for a brief moment before standing up straight and looking directly at Natasha. 

“Sometimes I know things.” 

There was an almost indiscernible pause as he watched for her reaction. She gave none. 

“It’s not consistent,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s about me – somewhere I need to go, something that’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s other people – an Army buddy needs to go the infirmary and miss that day’s mission, the lion tamer’s assistant is pregnant. It’s not consistent or dependable. It’d be a lot more useful if it was.” 

He stopped and Natasha realized he was waiting for her response. She considered. 

“And you knew we were soul mates.” 

“I did,” he answered simply. 

“When?”

“When I saw you through my scope for the first time.” 

“That’s why you didn’t kill me.” It wasn’t a question. 

“After I thought about it for three days, yeah.” 

“Three days?” She raised an eyebrow. 

“I never wanted a soul mate, never wanted a lattice, and I was supposed to kill you.” 

There was a brief silence before Clint continued. 

“But I couldn’t. I – well, I couldn’t.” 

Natasha’s eyes narrowed an infinitesimal amount. No one else at SHIELD would have been able to catch it. 

“You didn’t say anything.” 

Clint looked at her. 

Natasha looked back. 

“What?” Clint said dryly. “I should have told you that eventually we’d end up with matching sparkly tattoos? That’s a conversation that would have gone well.” 

Despite herself, Natasha’s lips quirked up. 

“You knew it would happen today?” 

Clint took a deep breath and let it out. 

“I knew it would happen when we fought.” 

“Because that’s intimate contact?” 

“For us?” It was Clint’s turn to give a quiet smile. “Apparently so.” 

Natasha could hardly argue. 

“You never wanted to bond with anyone?” she asked. In her experience, everyone wanted to find their bond, have lattices appear, compare them to their friends and swap stories about how delicious their lives were. 

“Did you?” he asked. 

Looking at him, Natasha knew without a doubt that Clint knew lattices and soul bonds were something that she neither gave much thought to nor had ever particularly wanted. 

“And now?” she prompted. 

“Now what?” 

“You’ve had two months to think this over. What do you think now?” 

“I think I was right to put it off. The little time we had to get to know each other before –“ he waved at each of them, “– is still better than nothing. I know I needed it, and I think you did. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.” 

Natasha considered before agreeing. “You’re not wrong. Finding out when I met you would have been…” Her voice drifted off. 

“Bad,” he finished flatly. 

“Yeah.” 

He sighed and sat down on the bed. Slowly, she followed suit. 

They both took a breath to say something, stopped to look at each other, then she prompted him to go ahead. 

“There is one other thing.” 

“Yes?”

“I…” he looked away, looked back. “I get why it’s you.” 

For the first time Natasha looked surprised. Not even his mild precognitive abilities had surprised her – the world was a strange place, abilities abounded. But – seriously? He understood why she was his soul mate? Just – seriously? 

She let him see all of that on her face, and he answered simply. 

“We bring out the best in each other.”

After a beat, Natasha stood to leave, no expression on her face, Clint watching as she moved to the door. 

She stopped and turned back to him. 

“May I see yours?”

Not all of their new tattoos were hidden, so they had already taken note of many of each others’ markings, but that wasn’t really what she was asking. 

Clint held up his left arm, the inside of his wrist facing towards her. There was a red and white target with a purple arrow in the center. He pulled down the front of his tee shirt and she saw again the abbreviated necklace of purple arrows and red Black Widow symbols. He turned his torso to show the same pattern repeated above his shoulder blades. 

He then pulled up the hem of his sweatpants to show the muted red and yellow scrollwork that circled his left ankle. It looked Cyrillic, but didn’t contain any specific letters. Directly over his Achilles tendon a shadowy, indistinct figure of a hawk was placed such that it appeared to be holding the two ends of the ankle bracelet together. 

Finally he spread his left palm wide and Natasha saw what looked like a vivid ice blue ball of electricity superimposed over…a soft brown teddy bear’s head? The bear’s head didn’t have any features, but it was clear what it was. 

At the last one Natasha gave him a quizzical look. 

Clint smiled, and it seemed sad. 

“A representation of your Widow’s Bite, I believe, over the bear that my mom gave me before she died.” He paused. “I still have him.” 

Natasha blinked. 

And held up the inside of her wrist, bearing a remarkably similar bullseye to his own, only in purple and white with a bullet hole. She held our her right ankle, now encircled with its own anklet, this one also in red and yellow, brighter than his, though, with a distinctive tone to the pattern that Natasha didn’t recognize. 

Clint smiled and Natasha raised an eyebrow. 

“Carson’s Carnival of Traveling Wonders,” he said by way of explanation. “I learned how to shoot there, had an act. That looks like what was on the poster.” 

She turned around to show him what circled her calf where he had grabbed her about six inches above her carnival lattice. It was five long parallel purple arrows, each tip of which ended in a red Black Widow symbol of inverted triangles that also backed up against the fletched ends of the arrows. 

Natasha took a deep breath, took off her shoes and proceeded to pull off her yoga pants. Clint couldn’t help it – he sat up straighter. 

Running up the inside of both of her thighs were pink, white and mauve swirls that each terminated in a creamy white stylized bow. 

Clint slid off the bed onto his knees in front of his partner and slowly moved his hand to touch her last lattice. He looked up at her in question, and she gave him a subtle nod. 

“It’s beautiful,” he said in a low voice as he trailed his finger over the design, the other hand raising to brush the other tattoo. 

“It’s how I see ballet – in my head,” she said in an equally subdued voice. 

His fingertips still on her thighs, Clint leaned forward and rested his forehead on Natasha’s stomach. She put her hands on his head for a moment before sinking down to the floor and moving her forehead to rest against his. 

They held each other wordlessly, their lattices bearing silent witness to their tableau.

**Author's Note:**

> It is my understanding that Camlann will be creating more stories in this universe, including one with Natasha. Her story, obviously, is canon. :-) This is simply my happy flitting through her world.


End file.
